Speaking in Detroit on Friday night, Senator Rand Paul responded to a question from the audience about whether he’d run for president in 2016. Paul said that, at the moment, his wife was opposed to the idea.

“Where’s my cell phone? Can I call my wife?” Paul joked. “There’s two votes in my family. My wife has both of them and both of them are ‘no’ votes right now.”

“If I’m a very able politician, I’ll tell you in a year whether I’m able to persuade my wife. Right now, I don’t know yet, but I thank you for your interest,” he said.

Mrs. Paul, a former political consultant who has been married to the senator for 23 years, told Vogue magazine earlier this year what troubled her about Rand running for president:

“In this day and age it’s mostly about character assassination,” she said. “When I think of the tens of millions of dollars in opposition research that they’d be aiming right at us and our family – that’s what it’s about.”

This is not an uncommon attitude that spouses have about their husbands running for president. Even the most political of wives fear being ground down by a process that demands so much from the candidate and his family.

But as Paul says, he’s got a year to convince her otherwise.

Paul was in Detroit pushing an innovative plan to rescue distressed cities — a resurrection of Jack Kemp’s old “enterprise zones” idea:

“Detroit’s future will not come from Washington. The magic of Motown is here in the city,” he told nearly 400 people at the Motor City Casino in Detroit.

Paul proposed a wide-ranging plan to revitalize the nation’s cities through the creation of “economic freedom zones.” His plan would cut federal taxes in communities that have an unemployment rate of 12% or more.

Federal personal and corporate taxes would be lowered to 5%, and the federal payroll tax would be cut to 2% each for employees and employers.

“Inside these zones, we’ll suspend the capital gains tax and allow small businesses to deduct most of what they invest,” he said.

The plan would save Detroit $1.3 billion over the next 10 years, Paul said.

The tax breaks themselves aren’t much considering Detroit’s dire straits. But Paul is counting on a change in the psychology of the city which would lead to a flood of private investment and risk taking. It’s an untested concept, but if you need an urban laboratory, you won’t find a better place than Detroit. Any help at this point should be welcome.

When a Republican or independent runs for an important office, the Propaganda Machine shifts into overdrive to try to find any skeleton, from spouse to children to grammar school locker partner...to slander away a fair election.

When a leftist candidate runs, the Propaganda Machine hides every skeleton it can find, to the extent that even a medical school couldn't find one with a search party or a posse.

What a waste. It's all so unnecessary. No leftist candidate has ever been found with a backbone throughout history anyway.

A plan like this would only be minimally effective if at all. It panders to the local political climate, represents just another hand-out and will suck capital and resources from adjacent areas that don't get these preferences. Where is the fairness or the value in this? You will still have a big-government, entitlement-oriented society with all of the low productivity, waste and fraud that it has now.

Go through bankruptcy and reset everything including pensions. Shut down the public service unions, make closed shops illegal, slash the number of regulations that are choking business creation, do not hire a single new government employee - let it wind down through attrition, retirement and other natural means. It may take a while to get all the way back - but I think you would see positive changes immediately.

Nominating a Senator in general is not a good idea- and he is a perfect example of the reason why. His economic freedom zones for Detroit is about as hair-brained as it gets. He's off looking pursuing unicorns while Rome burns.